Experts have done many different studies on children and their birth order in the family unit. Not surprisingly, children developed similar characteristics according to their position in the family. Firstborn children displayed several traits, both good and bad.

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Should boys play with toy guns and girls play with dolls? Or, putting it another way, should boys play with dolls and girls play with toy guns? There is a great deal of debate on the subject of toys and gender stereotyping, with people very much divided into one camp or another. There is certainly no escaping the fact that, no matter where you look, items associated with boys will generally have images of football, the army or superheroes, with copious amounts of blue to emphasise the fact that this is all for boys, whilst the girls’ sections will be adorned with glamorous icons, fairies and flowers, with pink daubed wherever possible.

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For most kids, bedroom cleaning is one of the top dreaded of all household chores. It falls within the ranks of scooping the poop or spending an entire Saturday afternoon cleaning the garage. Many moms get such opposition to this dreaded chore, often they just end up cleaning their children’s room themselves. But have you ever stop to wonder why this job is so dreaded by most children?

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When many couples make the step to get married, they want to be of one heart, one mind, and one soul. Somewhere along the line many couples have taken the notion that this includes even the eternal signs and symbols of their undying love. Many couples wanting to hold to tradition ask, are wedding bands supposed to match? This can seem a daunting question for some couples. But maybe you are two very unique individuals with different tastes in the type of metal you want your band to be constructed from. There are no social or religious traditions that hold a bride and groom to have to buy matching wedding bands. Maybe the groom to be is fond of all platinum jewelry, and wears it on a daily basis. The bride may be very fond of yellow gold and most of what she owns follows that them. In these cases it would make more sense to take an individual perspective on which band to purchase.

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It’s very easy for parents to become wistful about the simple old toys of yesteryear, when toys demanded real imagination, and everything wasn’t done for you. It’s certainly possible to be quick to jump at toys today that do some much, labelled as interactive, and as far as your concerned, that means that they’re taking away the opportunities for imaginative play, and that this is likely to be detrimental to the child’s development and happiness.

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Brides and grooms have a million decisions to make about their wedding day, from the most important (who will the attendants be?) to the most mundane (what color should the napkins be?). One decision that is difficult for many is whether to have their wedding portraits taken before or after the ceremony.

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When parents go shopping for children’s fashion wear they are often amazed by the unique clothing styles on every aisle in the clothing section. Some clothing styles are so unique that parents cannot tell how they are meant to be worn but the parents will be lulled into buying them because the children will reassure the parents that the unique clothing styles are in-style and considered hip to wear to school and any other occasion that they deem fit.

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Baby gift baskets are a great way to congratulate the parents, whether it be their 5th child or their first, and, of course, to welcome the newborn into the big world. Baby gift baskets have come a long way since about twenty years ago. Big companies have come out with all sorts of different-themed gift baskets that are practical and convenient. Here are some of the most popular baby gift baskets:

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Most children start taking swimming lessons from around 3 years of age. Here are a few tips for making this whole process of learning swimming a pleasant one:

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After years of working on weddings, there is one character that I have come to pity: the mother of the groom. Most of the attention at weddings, aside from that given to the couple, is placed on the mother and father of the bride. The parents of the groom are largely left out of the planning process and the wedding day seems structured to lavish attention on the bride and her family: her mother helps her to get dressed, her father walks her down the aisle and everyone recognizes the bittersweet nature of the day for the parents of the bride. While the day is just as bittersweet for the parents of the groom, their participation is typically limited to a cameo during the processional. For my part, I have made it a priority to arrange time prior to the ceremony for the parents of the groom to spend a few quiet moments with the groom. But I’ve also taken to strongly encouraging brides to forge a relationship with the mother of the groom during the planning process.

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